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Clutch- expected durability w/ unintended abuse?

kd1yt

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I've got a JT Gladiator that I bought in August and that I am really happy with the 6 speed MT, even though I really dislike the numbness of the clutch. I'm in my 50s and have driven way more miles with manuals than with autos. I've never, ever, had any trouble stalling MT vehicles but I do sometimes with this, just because I find this clutch so ambiguous with no signals or feedback about when you are in the friction zone.

Which brings me to my question- Friday was not a good day. 12 hours at work, then come home to use the tractor to clear 14" of heavy snow on my parents' long drive, and then intending to clear my own drive. Tractor's joystick cable snaps. Tractor down for the count at least until I can get the part.

Go to my own place and the JT was able to go through the tall dense roadside plowbank into my driveway. Not something I'd usually want to do but had no choice, can't park on this road.

Got through the plowbank fine, Went to turn around in the deep snow in my driveway, the extra resistance of sharp steering angle in 4wd in deep snow meant: stall-out as I was backing up. At that point I was exhausted and ticked off at everything, and in an effort to not stall again, unintentionally revved the engine more than I intended as I let the clutch out. Heard bad sounds, immediately backed off the throttle, immediately put the clutch to the floor, and smelled a hot smoky powerful smell that you never want to smell from a clutch. And I have a weak sense of smell, so if I'm smelling it strongly, and with the way that the smell hung around, it was a powerful smell. I think I glanced the tach at around 2K as I realized that I was unintentionally doing something really stupid as I pulled my foot off the throttle entirely, and pushed the clutch to the floor. Wised up and put the truck in 4LO and gently moved it to where I wanted to park it for the night.

So my question is - I know that what I did is something that you never want to do to a clutch, and that I doubtless shortened its useful life compared to what its life would've been without this incident - but, with this clutch, how likely is it that I've done serious damage that could crop up in the near term?

I just don't know enough about how durable these clutches are in this series vehicle. If I have done serious damage that is going to crop up and bite me at some random time when I don't expect it, I'd rather bite the bullet and replace the clutch before I risk random strandedness.
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Truth is, no one really knows. You might check the JL Forum to see if there are people replacing clutches on them yet. You likely didn’t do significant damage. Even if you took a few thousand miles off it’s life, you’ve got a lot of clutch life to go.
 

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I agree. Probably fine. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that there are a ton of JL/JT owners with manual transmissions that have abused their clutches a lot more than that and a lot more often. Time will tell but an occasional whoops probably won’t kill it.
 
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kd1yt

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Thanks! I did ask at the JL forum also, only got one response, but between there and here, my worry level has dropped. If I were sure that this was a rugged truck clutch I'd be less concerned, but with the light pedal and mushy feeling I am left not knowing how substantial the inner parts are. Seems to drive fine so I'll drop it from the immediate concern list. Thanks for the input
 

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Wouldn't worry about it one bit. Just broke it in and mating well. If it had 100k miles on it and you smoked it up good there probably isn't much left!
 

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I've got a JT Gladiator that I bought in August and that I am really happy with the 6 speed MT, even though I really dislike the numbness of the clutch. I'm in my 50s and have driven way more miles with manuals than with autos. I've never, ever, had any trouble stalling MT vehicles but I do sometimes with this, just because I find this clutch so ambiguous with no signals or feedback about when you are in the friction zone.

Which brings me to my question- Friday was not a good day. 12 hours at work, then come home to use the tractor to clear 14" of heavy snow on my parents' long drive, and then intending to clear my own drive. Tractor's joystick cable snaps. Tractor down for the count at least until I can get the part.

Go to my own place and the JT was able to go through the tall dense roadside plowbank into my driveway. Not something I'd usually want to do but had no choice, can't park on this road.

Got through the plowbank fine, Went to turn around in the deep snow in my driveway, the extra resistance of sharp steering angle in 4wd in deep snow meant: stall-out as I was backing up. At that point I was exhausted and ticked off at everything, and in an effort to not stall again, unintentionally revved the engine more than I intended as I let the clutch out. Heard bad sounds, immediately backed off the throttle, immediately put the clutch to the floor, and smelled a hot smoky powerful smell that you never want to smell from a clutch. And I have a weak sense of smell, so if I'm smelling it strongly, and with the way that the smell hung around, it was a powerful smell. I think I glanced the tach at around 2K as I realized that I was unintentionally doing something really stupid as I pulled my foot off the throttle entirely, and pushed the clutch to the floor. Wised up and put the truck in 4LO and gently moved it to where I wanted to park it for the night.

So my question is - I know that what I did is something that you never want to do to a clutch, and that I doubtless shortened its useful life compared to what its life would've been without this incident - but, with this clutch, how likely is it that I've done serious damage that could crop up in the near term?

I just don't know enough about how durable these clutches are in this series vehicle. If I have done serious damage that is going to crop up and bite me at some random time when I don't expect it, I'd rather bite the bullet and replace the clutch before I risk random strandedness.
My experience with all the clutches that I had is that you wore out your clutch a very little bit, but, it is a non issue. They are designed to take this abuse, kinda like brakes. You have plenty of pad on your new clutch. You can smoke it many times like this and it still will be OK for tons of miles. I have accidentally done this a few times on other vehicles and the clutch has still gone over 150K miles. If the clutch is gripping, then, you are OK. It will last a long, long time. My advice is to not worry about it and sleep well.
 
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kd1yt

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Thanks again for the input. I've managed to never previously be anywhere near that rough on a clutch, so it's helpful to know that it was an ordinary bonehead occurrence and not a severe-damage bonehead occurrence.
 

m0brando

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I'd keep your eye on it. I'm 47 and have driven multiple manual transmission vehicles all my life and love them compared to a "boring" auto. I bought a new '18 JL 2 door with the 6 speed and had similar experiences with it to what you describe. To the point that at 7k miles the clutch basically gave out after a banging/smoking episode like yours. The dealer replaced it under warranty and said it was the third one they had done in a JL (small dealer). The service advisor said they are working with Jeep on it but a possible culprit was a plastic throwout bearing. Needless to say the whole joy of driving a manual was quickly lost on that vehicle and for that reason my JT is an automatic - which is awesome for an automatic. Just so you're aware, clutches are warranted for 12months/12k miles and I was right at the 12 month mark.
 
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kd1yt

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I'd keep your eye on it. I'm 47 and have driven multiple manual transmission vehicles all my life and love them compared to a "boring" auto. I bought a new '18 JL 2 door with the 6 speed and had similar experiences with it to what you describe. To the point that at 7k miles the clutch basically gave out after a banging/smoking episode like yours. The dealer replaced it under warranty and said it was the third one they had done in a JL (small dealer). The service advisor said they are working with Jeep on it but a possible culprit was a plastic throwout bearing. Needless to say the whole joy of driving a manual was quickly lost on that vehicle and for that reason my JT is an automatic - which is awesome for an automatic. Just so you're aware, clutches are warranted for 12months/12k miles and I was right at the 12 month mark.
Thanks for the heads up. I had the 8 speed auto in my 2015 Ram 1500 Ecodiesel and it was by far the best AT I've ever driven. But I am really enjoying the MT. Guess that for both reasons of reliability and a more likeable clutch, I should put that Centerforce clutch on my to-do-eventually goal list.
 

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For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure the Nissan Frontier uses an Aisin manual transmission also, and there was an article posted last week about a guy with 1,000,000 miles on his Frontier. He said that he had to replace the original clutch at 801,000.
 

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kd1yt

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For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure the Nissan Frontier uses an Aisin manual transmission also, and there was an article posted last week about a guy with 1,000,000 miles on his Frontier. He said that he had to replace the original clutch at 801,000.
Thanks, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that the clutch isn't from Aisin, especially in the Jeep but possibly not even in the Frontier, but I don't have any way to know for certain. I've decided not to worry in the immediate term...
 

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I burned my JK clutch like that a couple times around 5-10K miles when I had it. I sold it at 50K for a better family ride and had zero further issues with the clutch.
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